Tango Juliet Foxtrot

In this episode, I try and help people understand what will be going on behind the scenes as UK policing deals with the worst outbreak of violent disorder since the 2011 riots in England.

In this episode, I chat to Andy Fairie, who has retrained as a psychotherapist after leaving policing. He is also the host of the SFQ podcast and author of Listening Skills for Effective Policing. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1915713455/ref=cm_sw_r_apin_dp_PBTXNNHH7DSR1J3QPT59

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking to Dave Marshall, who recently retired after serving over 30 years in policing. Dave is the author of the book 'THE FALL OF POLICING: When Woke Cancelled The British Bobby' where he discusses the decline of British policing. According to Dave, over time, the British police have shifted their focus from keeping the law-abiding public safe to politically correct initiatives, resulting in a less safe society. This shift has eroded public trust in policing and created a perception of incompetence among the police force.   If you are interested in reading Dave's book, you can find it at https://www.amazon.com/FALL-POLICING-Cancelled-British-Bobby/dp/B0CTW6XZ5Z/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3IEKM2JSVIKJX&keywords=dave+marshall&qid=1707860502&sprefix=dave+marshall%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-1.   In his book, Dave charts the demise of British policing. He describes how, over time, British policing gradually abandoned its primary purpose of keeping the law-abiding public safe to focus instead on politically correct initiatives that have left the public much less safe. This has undermined public trust in policing and created a perception that the police are incompetent.

***WARNING - This episode contains extremely graphic descriptions and should not be listened to in the presence of children***   In this episode I speak to Ex-Inspector Jack Frost who was trained to work with forensic scientists at crime scenes involving multiple fatalities. Jack and his colleagues were deployed after the suicide bombings on the London Underground in July 2005. People like Jack deserve our respect and thanks for the particularly distressing job that they do.

In this episode I dive into the worrying rise in police resignations. In England and Wales, Home Office data revealed 3433 voluntary resignations in the year ending March 2022, a rise of 72% from the previous year and a rise of 196% since the year ending March 2012.   Professor Sarah Charman from Portsmouth University has interviewed scores of ex-police officers who resigned recently from policing. Her findings are deeply worrying for the future of the organisation.

In this episode, I look at the implications of charging officer NX121 with murder and what this means for our safety in the UK.

After a break for a few months I'm back. In this episode I have a great chat with Scott Hamer, who will tell us all about his police career and being a close protection officer for the Royal Family.

Life has been tough for the last while...so this will be the last podcast for a bit.

This week I give my thoughts on recent developments in UK policing. Lots of signs that a new breed of police leader is prepared to make tough decisions, stick up for their staff and show some backbone!

This episode features a fascinating chat with Paul Franklin, the SIO who investigated the attempted murder of Vicky Cilliers by her husband Emile Cilliers. First he tried to blow her up in a gas explosion and when that failed he tried to kill her by tampering with her parachute. 

My no-holds-barred assessment of the Casey Report.  **Spoiler alert** I think it's good.....

This week I enjoyed chatting to Andrew Snowden, the current police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Lancashire. We had a wide-ranging chat about the work of PCCs, the controversy that surrounded their introduction under the Cameron/May government, political interference in policing, as well as hearing his thoughts on many of the current challenges faced by policing in the UK.

This week I had some of my own assumptions and prejudices well and truly challenged when I spoke to Skye Morden, who came out as a transgender police officer some years ago. The massive level of support that Skye has received from her police colleagues is in stark contrast to the level of hate that she has received at the hands of some sections of the media and from online trolls. This is her story.

The very sad Nicola Bulley incident needs to act as a catalyst in the re-setting of the relationship between UK policing and the media. This episode explores why I think this urgently needs to happen.

This week I had the privilege and pleasure of chatting to Christian Plowman, who served many years in covert policing in the Met and then went on to forge a successful career working for Interpol and a range of NGOs tackling the illegal trade in ivory and products from endangered species in Africa. Fascinating stuff.

This week I go completely off-piste and chat to someone who I would describe as a friend, but who led a life that I knew nothing about when we first met.  Craig Bulgin was outwardly a hard-working, professional builder and loving family man when I met him. It was only sometime later that he hinted that his life had not always been like that.  This was the first time that I had heard his full story and it frequently made for difficult listening. Craig is a great example of how it is possible to turn your life around and get away from a criminal lifestyle.

This week I dive into the horrible world of drug dealers and organised crime in my chat with expert witness and ex-detective Ian Broughton. Illegal drugs are the single biggest driver of crime, human misery and violence in our inner cities and increasingly across once-peaceful parts of the UK. Ian spent a large part of his police career investigating drug-related crime and became one of the most knowledgeable people in the UK on these issues. I learned a lot in our chat, and I'm sure you will too. Ian can be contacted for training or his expertise at court at https://www.expertwitnessservices.co.uk/

In this episode, I had the great joy of chatting to one of my favourite comedians, Alfie Moore, star of BBC R4 show 'It's a Fair Cop'. Alfie left policing after nearly 20 years to embark on a new career as a stand-up comic. As well as a highly successful theatre tour all over the UK, Alfie's show on Radio 4 is now on its seventh series. You can book tickets to see him live here: https://alfiemoore.com/tickets/    

Both new and experienced officers are leaving the police service in droves as a result of poor pay, low morale, weak leadership and political interference.  Joe Crocker is now helping serving officers to understand what their options look like and how to present themselves and their skills to maximise their opportunities outside of law enforcement.

This week I chatted to Matt Johnson, who left policing with severe PTSD and reinvented himself as a successful author. https://mattjohnsonauthor.com/ His first book, Wicked Game was long-listed by the Crime Writers Association for the 2016 John Creasey New Blood Dagger Award and at the end of 2016 it was listed by Amazon as the highest-rated debut novel of the year. His latest book, Crow 27, is a fictionalised account based on a series of incidents that took place involving the deaths in obscure circumstances of four British Army trainee soldiers at the Princess Royal Barracks in Deepcut, Surrey between 1995 and 2002.

Mental health issues are now reaching epidemic proportions in UK policing, and a recent academic report (Op Soteria Bluestone) showed that burnout symptoms for emotional exhaustion shown from a survey of officers are higher than amongst NHS staff during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Zane McCormack was a high-performing officer at the top of his game. Ironically he worked on a team dedicated to finding missing people who were experiencing mental health crises in difficult-to-reach terrain (coastal areas, mountains and remote landscapes) when he had a complete mental breakdown. He now works to support men in difficulties with his new venture www.theassuredman.com

Sir Mark Rowley, the Commissioner of the Met gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee this week and it provided a fascinating insight into the bewilderingly complex job that he has taken on. The preoccupations of the MPs and their obvious lack of understanding of the realities of modern policing was alarming but not at all surprising. 

This week I learn loads by chatting with the fascinating Carol Rogers who has spent 25 years attending some pretty horrific crime scenes as a forensic biologist.

This week I chat with Andy Conway, who has been planning and managing the security of high profile visitors, politicians and royalty visiting the 2022 football World Cup in Qatar. Andy had a long and interesting career in policing, running the Prime Ministerial protection team for a number of years.

There has been a lot going on as ever in policing, so I decided to give you my thoughts. Lucky you. You're welcome. I talked about the Iceberg of Ignorance (Sidney Yoshida)....here's a link to more information.   https://andonix.com/uncovering-the-iceberg-of-ignorance/    

My first 'proper' operational team

First encounters with the Great British Public....

Joe Carter (not his real name) spent over 20 years as an undercover officer, infiltrating criminal gangs. He wrote a book 'Undercover - A true story' about his experiences.